FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1947
1947 - 0135.PDF
JANUARY 23RD, 1947 FLIGHT 101 CORRESPONDENCE own navigator, but had really to make big decisions regardingfuel and range problems as the trips grew longer and longer I have known my squadron on more than one occasionclimb through 20,000ft of cloud, complete a mission and returt) home over 10/ loths without the aid of an elaborate chart tableor long-rang^ W/T. I should have thought that the "rely on yourself" experience of a single-engined pilot would go a long way to develop the qualities expected of a captain of aircraft—if only a littleaircraft. However, my old C.C.I, warned me and I should haveknown better than to disregard his advice; but I would appreciate your giving a few words of fatherly advice tosingle-engint pilots who think a job ts theirs for the asking when they have obtained a ' H licence.jr- EX-IK.HTER BOY. THE FLYING CITIZEN Publicise the Accident-free Operations FURTHER to the letters which have been appearing iu theCorrespondence columns of Flight, and also in view of the crop oi accidents that appear to have taken place duringthe last few days, I feel that the time has come when the general public should be more fully informed of the amountof accident-free flying which actually takes place. The headlines in the Press aitei each unfortunate accidentcannot but deter the general public, and I would suggest that a reasonable way to counteract this would be for all theoperating companies to group their figures and publish them, say monthly, in the public Press, giving the total numberof passengers leaving and arriving at the main airports, and total mileages flown. F. W. G. PROSPECTS AND PORTENTS "Indicator " taken to Task: Dr. Spiiffing's InventionAnti-dated WE were disappointed to find, in your otherwise admirableaccount of Dr. Spiiffing's lecture to the Arts and Sciences Society of Wormwood Scrubbs, no reference to the fact thatthe Doctor's claims to originality in this field rest on more than doubtful foundations, since his conclusions weie to agreat extent anticipated by Abimelech Jones, whose pioneer researches in the 'eighties of the last century have been sadlyneglected, and by Professor Treihardt Rabisch, whose aero- nautical investigations are very little known, being somewhatdifficult of access, buried as they are amid a mass of unrelated matters of which they were, in effect, only a by-product. Abimelech Jones was a prominent citizen of Wishwosh, nearMedicine Hat, but situated exactly on the. 49th parallel and possessing, in consequence, the unique distinction of havingtwo Mayors and two Corporations with equal and co-extensive but independent jurisdictions. Jones' nationality has there-fore never been clearly established. His magnum opus, Birds are a Back-number—or the Scientific Flying Machine Con-structor, was entirely lost for many years, the manuscript and nearly all the original and only edition (eleven copies) havingbeen destroyed in a disastrous fire—following an over-ambitious experiment by his grandson (see below) on the properties ofket propellants—in the author's workshop in 1892; but a espy was recently brought to light in the Library of Congress,where it had inadvertently been included among the files of the Wishwosh Eagle and Commercial Intelligencer for the years1888 to 1900. This work, based largely on the exhaustive experiments ofAbimelech's grandson, Jehoiachim Jethro Jones, Jr., then aged nine, describes in the minutest detail the low-aspect-ratio,keeled, all-wing monoplane which Dr. Spurring claims as his invention. Spurring's mathematical treatment, including, ofcourse, the famous Spurring NumbeT, is new, but the basic physical theory, expressed perhaps less rigorously but none theless effectively, is all to be found in Jones' treatise. Of Rabisch all that need be said is that he was, for someyears towards the end of Queen Victoria's reign, curator of the Ethnological Museum of Goalong, N.S.W., and subse-quently Professor of Comparative Savagery in his native Bogusz, where he died at a great age in 1911. His manuscript notes (unpublished) were discovered in the University BeetCellar while this was being converted into an Allied Control Commission District H.Q., and were found to contain, amongstlengthy speculations on aboriginal-cultuie complexes, an exact description of Spiiffing's unsymmetrical, swept-back auto-rotative aircraft, and a comprehensive discussion of its aero- dynamic characteristics and operational possibilities. It isinteresting to note that Rabisch did not favour the ball-bearing cabin idea, since he maintained that autorotation would havea soothing effect on the occupants. That Dr. Spiiffing himself should have failed to acknowledgehis debt to these original sources, notwithstanding the publica- tion of copious abstracts from both Jones' and Rabisch's workin the transactions of the Montgolfier Institute itself, is a matter for no surprise, seeing that he is a Ruritanian refugeehaving political affiliations with the unpopular Top Dead Centre Party (in liquidation), whose only constructive measurewhen in power was the abolition of copyright. May we, in conclusion, point out an inaccuracy (possibly aprinter's eiror) in your quotation of the fundamental Spuffmg formula? The term to the left of the equality sign should con-tain the factor *J 2 in the denominator, since the Spufnng Number is now, by International Agreement, taken to be twicethe multiplier ol the Lift coefficient in the expression for ter- minal supersonic velocity gradient outside the boundary layer(extrapolated to infinity). Strictly speaking, the factor C Lshould have the suffix zero. In the general form of the equa- tion there is, of course, an arbitrary constant, which, however,approaches asymptotically to unity in practical cases, i.e., except when the derivative of the ionisation potential of thefluid with respect to S lr is in the instalibity region, or thesurface is infinitely rough. For security reasons it is necessary that we request leave towithhold our fujl names, and therefore beg to sign ourselves M.E.V.E.P. and F.J.R.C. ["Indicator" writes: "I accept the reproof, but in self-defence it should be explained that the work of Jones and Rabisch was mentioned during the discussion which followedDr. Spuffing's lecture. The quality of their conclusions was, however, so strongly criticized by the Doctor that 1 thought itbetter, perhaps, to leave the matter open. It seems probable that experiments on types such as the S.427 spearhead hadbeen carried out, even before the 'eighties, by so-far-unnarned students of fundamental aerodynamic research."] ULTRA-LIGHT AIRCRAFT Some Degree of Supervision Advisable YOUR correspondent, Mr. J. A. Allan (Flight, Decembr-r26th), deplores the application of the certificate system to gliders, but there are a few rays of hope. First, the A.R.15.consists of representatives of the users, the makers and the Government. One may expect them to apply some reasonablesafeguards without being unnecessarily restrictive if they are to serve all the interests they represent. Secondly, gliders also have to "carry trusting passengers"as Mr. Allan puts it, and one can hardly deny to the casual user of club machines some measure of assurance that themachine he flies is sound. In Switzerland, where one cannot find a single shoddy glider, the control is in the hands of aGovernment inspector (Capt. VV. Ledermann), who is an early " Silver C" and has the interests of the glider pilot at heart.The result is the finest fleet of gliders in any country. The same applies in Czechoslovakia. Thirdly, the British Gliding Association is composed entirelyof hard-bitten gliding enthusiasts and is helping to frame the regulations so as to avoid undue restriction. To sum up, I would say that some measure of supervision isdesirable, but it must be tempered with common sense and con- sideration (as, indeed, should be the application of any law).I know all too well that the A.R.B. inspectors can make or avoid trouble by their individual attitude, and we shall wantsome form of appeal in cases of doubt. We have to steer a middle course between extreme laxity and futile officialdomthat knows no tolerance. So while we must avoid any further obstacles to the gliding community, I feel that a sensiblemeasure of control will keep machines out of trouble and make out efforts all the more praiseworthy. Let us not despair for, I believe, the new control will bereasonable and will lead to sound machines, particularly when the Government decides to assist the finest Of all basic flyingtraining, gliding and soaring. J. CECIL RICE, A.R.Ae.S(Leicestershire Gliding Club).
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
